


Adders Work is Never Done

by Yekulan



Series: Dothkah [5]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: mild violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-08 18:28:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16434557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yekulan/pseuds/Yekulan
Summary: Yekulan is hunting down a band of new poachers, there's a reason only the best criminals are still in the business.





	Adders Work is Never Done

Leather made boots cautiously stepped between leaves and twigs, moving in tandem with the rustle of leaves in the wind. A drawn bowstring nested the tail of an arrow ready for its target, the metal arrowhead dripping with a clear fluid. 

"Skin it faster! Before someone comes looking for what stirred up the group." A man's ordered in the distance. 

"I'm going as fast I can, but if we want a decent sum of gil for the hide I need time." A younger man hissed back.

Yekulan made her way to the voices, bow half at the half draw as she shifted quietly through the undergrowth of the Shroud.

"Anything yet?" The first man called out.

"Nothing, all's clear for now." A third hollered back, closer than the rest.

Wary eyes settle on the lookout atop a log, peering through the trees for anyone looking for them; a smile curling behind the dark brown fur pelt that covered her mouth. As the man turned away from her to look east, Yekulan dropped her bow and lunged; taking the arrow and using it as an improvised dagger that she stabbed into his calf, continuing the motion to pull the leg out from under him. As his weight gave way towards her, she put a hand over his mouth and eased him down behind the fallen log, watching as he slowly became unresponsive, twitching but unable to do anything else. "Shhh, it'll be okay." She assured him, watching terrified eyes look at her in disbelief; only a tiny croak able to leave his throat as he called for help. Moving back to her bow, she pulled another arrow from her quiver before sealing it with the buckle, pulling a vial from her belt quickly and dipping an arrow in the clear slime.

"Hey, Alan!" The first voice called out again. "We still good?"

Yekulan took off quickly towards the voice in under cover of the numerous trees between them.

"Alan?... Edward, keep working, I'm going to make sure that idiot didn't fall asleep again."

Yekulan swallowed hard, she was close enough to hear the doubt in the man's voice. His footsteps thundered through her horns as he trotted into the bushes and undergrowth without a care. Tucking the arrow in the side of her bootstrap so it pointed forward past her boot, Yekulan then readied her bow above her head. As the man passed she brought the bow down around his head with him between the string and wood before yanking him behind the cover of the tree trunk, using the bow to strangle the man as he struggled before kicking him with the slime tipped arrow and watching his resistance fade as quickly as the first victim; thankfully she hadn't had to strangle him unconscious before removing the bow from his throat.

The wind kicked the branches about again, and with it, she moved out from behind the tree towards the site of the dead animal and its skinner. The man's back was to her, crouched over the deer as he carefully cut the hide away from the meat. Pulling a dagger from it's sheath, she quickly stabbed it into the cheek of his behind, watching the man freeze in shock and pain, barely able to reach back before he started to slow down; pulling the dagger out and looking up at the woman shrouded in dark green cloths, chiton, and hide. "Wwwhat… Bossss…" The coating taking effect slowly enough for him to question the predicament, but fast enough to leave him slurring and slowly falling over to lay on the ground twitching beside his party's kill. 

Picking her dagger from the man's stiff hand she pulled a pearl from its pouch on her belt beside the vial of clear slime. "First Lieutenant Yekulan Dothkah reporting in. I located three poachers, they're two malms south-west of Bentbranch… No need, I took them out-… No, they're still alive, just incapacitated… All right, I'll make sure nothing makes a meal out of them before your men get here." Tucking the pearl away in its pouch before trudging off into the woods for the two she had taken out first. Over the course of a half bell, she hauled both the bodies back to the corpse of the deer and their third mate and tied the still stiff poachers together; stripping them of their weapons in the process and pulling her arrows out of the wounds. 

"So you're the Adder everyone's been talking about back at the den." The 'Boss' remarked once the substance in his blood had worn off enough. "Been a real thorn in our side, bad for business people like you."

Yekulan sat quietly at the trunk of a nearby tree, watching them with narrow eyes.

"I never figured Gridania the type to welcome a foreigner like you into their arms, let alone ranks; a Xaela no less, savages the lot of you from what I hear." 

Yekulan's stare shifted to a glare from under her mask as she bore holes into the man with her eyes, she knew what he was doing, and as much as she wanted to relieve him of his life she would rather hear about him rotting in the Gridanian Gaol. 

"Rumor going around is you're all secretly cannibals, more beast than man." The man laughing as he saw Yekulan trying to remain calm. "Got the temper of a bull I see! Seeing red yet sweetie?"

Getting up from her seat she slowly walked over to the three tied together and crouched down inches away from the talkative ones face; a silent warning as she gave him a cold hard stare.

"What are you going to do? Hit me? You probably got less punch than your arrows have a bite."

Yekulan shook her head slowly as she stood up and turned around to put her back to them, trying to hide the twitching of her brow. Walking over to the bushes and rummaging through them for what she wanted.

"What, the wolf isn't even willing to use her teeth?" The man mocked.

When Yekulan turned around she bared a handful of berries, bringing them back in front the man in an open hand. "I don't have to use my teeth." She finally remarked.

"What, you're going to feed me?" He scoffed in confusion.

"You know what these are?" She asked with her muffled voice from behind the mask.

"No… Why?" His eyes looking at the Adder for answers.

"They're mistletoe berries, Matron's Mistletoe to be specific. Poisonous like all mistletoe is, and highly effective at its job I must say." Yekulan stated plainly, lifting a berry up near his lips with her free hand. "Open your mouth one more time, and you'll eat them. I promise it's an agonizing, long, drawn-out death."

"You-" before he could say "wouldn't" her fingers pushed into his mouth and planted the berry inside, as he tried to spit it out she dropped the rest of the handful in her left hand to hold his mouth shut and used her right to pinch his nose. After he was forced to swallowed the poacher looked at her in a mixture of fear in terror, quickly forcing himself to a cough and gag; trying to puke it up.

"Lieutenant!?" A voice called out behind her as she stood up and crushed the berries beneath her foot, twisting them into the dirt.

"About time." She grumbled before turning to look at the small squadron of Adders in uniform; letting them give her a proper salute before nodding. "At ease." Watching them relax their pose. "Corporal, these three behind me are the culprits, tracked them down over the past few days at the request of Kan-E-Senna." Handing the man the letter she had been given by the mail moogle days earlier. "Make sure we get a conjurer escorted out here to perform a ceremony for the deer once these three are back at the Adders Nest; we need to keep the Elementals happy even if they're not in a position to do anything about it at the moment."

"She just poisoned me!" The 'Boss' yelled at the squadron. 

"It was a bird berry, the most he's going to have is a bad case of the runs, I told him it was potent Mistletoe so he thinks he's going to die." She leaned in and whispered to the Corporal before he could question her, the man gave her knowing smirk and nodded.

"Well if it kills you it'll be better than what we're going to do to your friends in the Gaol for your crimes against Gridania." The Corporal replied smugly, Miqo'te ears twitching excitedly as his tail flicked behind him. Changing the topic to look at the other two that were tied to their leader, still very much twitching and incapacitated, he tilted his head in curiosity. "Did you do something to the others too, Lieutenant?"

"Fast acting paralysis coating on my arrows and daggers, it should wear off soon; their leader just had a way better constitution and worked it out of his system faster." Calmly explaining the situation as his squad moved in to start undoing some of the rope so each culprit could be carried individually; watching the Corporal nod slowly.

"Remind me never to get on your bad side." He remarked with a chuckle as he saw his men pick up the poachers and start walking back to Bentbranch.

"Noted." Smirking behind her mask as she started walking with them back to where she presumed a chocobo cart waited for the captives; wanting to make sure the leader didn't try to pull any tricks and get away and escort him all the way back. "Oh, I found these while I was looking for his punishment." Pulling a few more berries out of her pouch as she noticed the faded face paint on the Corporal's face. "I have a friend who could always use more, so I pick them when I see them, you're welcome to take some."

"Soldier's Sore; and here I thought they said foreigners weren't cultured in our traditions." The Keeper muttered in disbelief as he accepted the handful of berries with a nod. "Knowledge of our hunt rituals, and keeper face paint ingredients, what's next; you talk to the Elementals too?"

"Not yet, but I'm working on it." She joked, pulling the fur of her mask down to share a smile with the Corporal.


End file.
